The mitt came in a lot of three gloves/mitts. They all looked like they had been laying around in a barn for decades. Two were throw aways. The mitt had no holes or tears and was basically all there. There were certain "tells" that I recognized as J.A Peach. I took it to my laundry sink and used saddle soap and a soft bristle brush to lightly scrub off all the dirt and grime. It got very sudsy. One nice thing about saddle soap is that it has some leather replenishing ingredients in it. The mitt looked immediately better. There was actually some decent leather under all that accumulation of dirt and neglect. After it dried, I detailed it thoroughly and did a final conditioning.

Geez Mike, I want to send you a huge box to work on, ha. JK. Very nice job. I wish I still had that kind of patience. I haven't gotten my hands dirty in awhile. Seeing how great that one came out, I'm tempted to do a stack over the holidays. Thanks for inadvertently kicking me in the butt. You truly are a master craftsman.

It seems the links don't work anymore where for the glove restoration photos you said to go to for more details...still have details available? I'm interested in how you went about some of your restorations.

I don't have any more photos of the Peach mitt, just before and after. If you are interested, type in my user name in the search window of this section and earlier posts may be helpful. One tip is to choose the right glove/mitt. That takes a certain amount of trial and error and a lot of knowledge. JD's website is a wonderful resource http://www.baseballglovecollector.com as is Joe Phillips indispensable "Vintage Baseball Glove Catalog Source Book". Memorize everything that differentiates the quality models from the run of the mill.

Below is an example. Listed only as a Splading mitt, it could be something, could be nothing. The wrist strap was a dead give away however. In the late 1930's, Spalding used this wrist strap design only on their best models. So yeah, a good one to take a chance on and bada bing, The Jimmie Foxx model 151.

This 1920's model 148 Goldsmith base mitt was a mid line model. Wear and tear can really take a toll because the leather is softer. This one however had fantastic leather front and back. The vent holes in the back were also pretty cool. The perimeter lacing was not so great. It was quite brittle. There was also a repaired section between the thumb and body added some time ago. I did notice the color of the original lace was a light cream color but was now very dingy. It was never going to clean up. I removed it all and replaced it with some cream lacing I had. The front and back of the mitt had some light soiling so I cleaned it up and conditioned the mitt with Dr. Jackson's Hide Rejuvenator. It's available on ebay and Amazon. It is very penetrating and can deepen the color of the leather. I like the contrast of the light lacing against the leather color. It looks more like the way it originally came from the factory. I looked through some 1917-24 Goldsmith catalogs to get an idea of the original webbing. Half the mitts had a simple laced web and the others had a strap. I added a strap for a more custom look.

Old garden gloves are a great resource for cream colored lacing. I look for these at flea markets. The one below is not super old but had the perfect type of leather. I used my lace maker tool and got about 7 ft. of lace from that 4 in. section of the glove.

The first photos are from an ebay listing a few years ago. The presentation was really lacking here but enough visual info to pique my interest. 1. What is keeping the thumb tight to the body of the mitt?2. Is that a tear or the end of the heel lacing?3. Hook and grommet at the wrist opening4. Rivets holding built in finger guard band5. Double face pocket6. Hint of extra stitching, possibly for a crescent pad?

It was D&M all the way with 4 of 5 Jason Draper patents on one mitt; Heel lacing, riveted perimeter band, double face pocket and riveted web strap. The mitt was lumpy and needed some padding adjustment. The crescent pad was intact.

A Rawlings original "Bill Doak" glove. A cautionary tale for sure. I bought the middle version after being ruined, glutton for punishment I guess. I have some skills though after clawing my way for 7 years to a couple degrees in art school. Work/study is a bitch, lol. The fix: a 4-0 artists watercolor brush, magnifying glass, powdered pigment/water and some patience working letter by letter, number by number.